If you get a copy of the scriptures with you,
we'll be starting a new little mini -series tonight.
It'll be in the Old Testament in the book of
Haggai. So it's Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah,
Malachi, right there towards right before the
New Testament starts. Interesting book, not a
book that if you do a little bit of research
is preached on very often. One of the least preached
books in the United States, so it seemed very
interesting to dig in a little bit. Just two
chapters, I think we'll be here for four or five
Sunday nights, so not too terribly long, but
we'll take our time and move through it well.
Haggai is a minor prophet with contemporaries
such as Zechariah and Malachi, and we know very
little personally about the prophet, which is
interesting. He is only mentioned here, obviously,
in this book, penned, and then in the book of
Ezra as well. What is interesting in the book
of Haggai is that there are very specific dates.
A lot of times when we get into some of the minor
prophet books, we know a little bit about the
prophet themselves, but the dates are a little
open -ended. Haggai does not fit that particular
model. The dates he gives are very, very specific.
So we know exactly when he ministered, not just
the year, but even the day and the month for
every single thing that happens. He began to
minister in the second year of King Darius, so
520 B .C. If you're taking notes, we'll lay a
bit of historical context before we get started.
But you might say, what was the state of the
nation at this time? Why do we have this book
and how did we get here? You may remember that
it was prophesied for quite a while that Judah
would be carried off into exile. Ultimately,
that began to happen by the nation Babylon, King
Nebuchadnezzar. Israel had to, or Judah, had
to endure 70 years of exile because they had
repeatedly chased after false gods and idols.
And we would normally get that date as 586 B
.C., but really that was the destruction of the
temple. There were three different waves in which
they were carried off. The first of which was
605 B .C., which was when Daniel and some of
his contemporaries were taken off to Babylon.
So there's three different waves of that, and
that's where we would start that story. 70 -year
countdown. When the Babylonians, though, were
conquered by Persia, in fact, at that time it
would be King Cyrus that conquered Babylon, there
was a decree issued that the Jews were allowed
to return back to their homeland and then begin
to rebuild their temple. The challenge was, as
soon as they came back, they immediately faced
opposition and they abandoned the project. It
lay dormant for about 17 or 18 years. Insert
Haggai. Haggai's first prophecy is almost 20
years to the date after these first exiles had
returned back. And it was not what they had hoped.
They had came back from being in exile, very
expectant. They were going to rebuild the temple.
Things were going to go their way. They were
going back home. And they had settled into a
very uncomfortable status quo where they were
just barely eking out an existence. Things were
not good. We'll read that in the text tonight.
And into this situation, when things are just
not good, it's not what they've hoped for, God
then sends his prophet with a message of, new
hope for His people, a message that will speak
hope to us as well. We'll see in this book that
there are four different sermons delivered by
Haggai. And he's so specific in dates, we know
they were from August to December in the year
520 BC. So he did not prophesy for a terribly
long time, but it was very effective. A lot of
times when we get into these minor prophet books,
there is cries of judgment. There is a lot of
foretelling, a lot of prophecy, but not a lot
of reaction on the part of the recipients. Here
in Haggai, there is a lot of reaction. of the
Word of God, a response to the Word of God. The
people are repentant. They then begin to rebuild.
So there is a lot of good exchange here, if you
will. And although it is the second shortest
book in the entire Old Testament, it is rich
and it's profitable teaching for the church today.
So it's very applicable to us. We will see the
Lord call upon this unfaithful remnant, His covenant
people, to repent, to rebuild the temple. And
Haggai ultimately anticipates the day of the
Lord. The day in which God has said in the person
of His Son that He will fulfill all the promises
that He has made to His people. So, let's get
into verses 1 and 2 tonight of chapter 1, the
book of Haggai. It says, So the first thing we
see is that it was not a good time. for the people.
King Cyrus, who allowed them to first go back
home, and not only go back home, but issued a
decree that they should rebuild their temple
and was going to supply some funding for that.
died after about a short eight -year reign. His
son took over for a while. There was sort of
a coup. And then we see Darius come up, who was
a general there. And in 522, he becomes king
over this Persian empire. And in 520 BC, Haggai
begins then to speak on God's behalf. And we
see a couple people listed here. First of all,
Zerubbabel would deal with civil matters. Joshua
is going to deal with religious matters as far
as the Persian government was concerned. And
my wife, Kay Lynn, was at Cedarville. She had
an Old Testament professor there whose name was
Dr. Chris Miller. And he was a wonderful man
of God, a wonderful professor, and had a way
with words. It was very captivating as he taught.
And one of the classes he taught very well was
a survey of the Old Testament. And his lectures
were recorded at that time, like on the internet
somewhere, for students to reference. And she
thought they would be such a help to me that
she burned every single Old Testament lecture,
and there was a lot of them, onto CDs. And I
had a 45 -minute drive to work, and I would listen
to them on the way there and on the way back,
because it was so captivating. And I was so hungry
at that time, early on in my ministry. I listened
to them so much, they quit playing. They'd get
scratched and they'd quit working. But one thing
that Dr. Miller said that I'll never forget,
and my kids have been saying it for two weeks
now in the car, is that when he would talk about
the minor prophets, specifically when he got
into Haggai, he would always say Zerubbabel.
And every time he would say Zerubbabel, he would
always say, who picked up the rubble? And it
was just a very interesting way to tie him to
the rebuilding of that temple. And it obviously
worked. It was very catchy because I still remember
it now almost 20 years later. But who was Zerubbabel
and why was he important? Why do we see that
name right here in the first part of this book?
Well, Zerubbabel was a grandson of King Jehoiachin,
who was a descendant about 20 generations worth
of David. Now, that's very important. Even though
Zerubbabel was a governor, he was not a king,
he was a true Davidic... And as he served as
governor in this rebuilding effort, as we would
see, under the Persian Empire, we see a continuing
of the line of David, despite the monarchy's
apparent collapse when they had been in exile.
This preserved the Davidic covenant, and it pointed
toward a coming Messiah, that God had not broken
his promise, a sermon that he had kept them,
even through this exile that Judah had to go
through. And we see Zerubbabel... His name is
mentioned in the genealogies in Matthew 1 and
Luke 3. They both include him, and it ties this
important link and lineage between David and
Jesus Christ. Now, a charge is quickly laid against
the inhabitants of Judah here in verse 2 that
now had not been the time to rebuild the Lord's
house. And certainly no one disputed the necessity
of needing to rebuild, but they had... Enemies
come on them immediately. 17, 18 years had went
by. They wanted to build the temple, but they
just hadn't got to it. And it wasn't a good time.
It wasn't a good time. And as often happens,
as we tend to put things off, they can sometimes
get put off for a long time. And we look around
a couple years went by like, oh, yeah, I was
going to get to that project. And you just never
got to it. And, you know, they were difficult
times. We'll give them that. The remnant was
small. that had returned. There was a general
lack of funds. Just keeping food on their tables
had been very difficult. But look at what Haggai
says in verses 3, 4, and 5. Then the word of
the Lord came by Haggai. So here's the first
prophecy. Saying, is it time for you yourselves
to dwell in your paneled houses and this temple,
the temple of the Lord, to lie in ruins? Now
therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider
your ways. Now, The Lord's response to their
words was, if now was such a bad time to rebuild
God's house, why was it the time for the people
to dwell in paneled houses of their own? And
that word paneled is very interesting. That doesn't
just jump out at us, but let's talk about it.
It's going to make a lot more sense. That doesn't
just mean that their houses were ornately decorated.
That is a word that was only used a handful of
times, and every time it was used in the Old
Testament, it was to describe the beauty of Solomon's
temple as it was being built. I mean, splendor
beyond compare. There had been so much effort
put into their houses of their own, but now it
wasn't a good time to rebuild the Lord's house.
And Haggai's point is this, that the people had
been quite happy to put precisely... amount of
time and what resources they could put together
into their own houses while they claimed they
had no time, no effort, no money to restore the
Lord's house. And during difficult times... It
can be very easy to retreat or withdraw from
God or from serving others. That is what our
flesh wants. In our flesh, we do retreat. We
do withdraw. We flee. But we cannot allow the
difficulties of life to become an excuse for
centering our existence on ourselves. Church,
we were created for so much more than that. We
were created for community. We were created to
serve one another. isolated, we were created
for so much more. What is the chief in a man?
To glorify God, not to pursue our own ambitions
and build up our own houses. Verse 6, Haggai
continues. He says, you have sown much, but you
bring in little. You eat, but you don't have
enough. You drink, but you're not filled with
drink. You clothe yourself, but no one is warm.
And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into
a bag with holes. Feel the tension in verse 6.
You've planted much, but you've harvested very
little. You've ate. They didn't starve to death,
but they were still hungry. You had something
to drink, but it wasn't enough to fully satisfy.
You've had some clothing. They weren't naked,
but yet they weren't warm. And they've earned
some wages, but they might as well have just
dropped them into a bag with holes in it. Their
strategy had been counterproductive up until
this point. They had been busy to pursue their
own goals, their own ambitions, but yet they
hadn't accomplished them. They had sown abundantly,
but they had not reaped in what they would hope.
Everyone had something to wear, but not enough
to keep out the cold. And what they were getting
out of life was not equal to what their inputs
were. in effort and resource. So they did not
experience, they had not experienced since the
return of his exile, almost 20 years, the fullness
of God's blessing. The pleasure that they sought
seemed elusive, something that they just could
not get a hold of. Why was life this way? I think
it's important to say it was certainly not an
issue of God's lack of power to bless them. It
was God who had been with this exact people as
they wandered through the wilderness for 40 years
and their shoes never wore out from off their
feet. They never went hungry and never had any
lack. It wasn't the Lord's inability to bless
them. It was their inability to begin to look
to the Lord and to build His house and to put
their time and their efforts there instead of
focusing on their own homes and their own things.
Verse 7 and 8. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider
your ways. Go up to the mountains and bring wood
and build a temple, that I may take pleasure
in it and be glorified, says the Lord. Now, we're
going to go to verse 15 tonight. But immediately
in verse 7, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Consider
your ways. To me, that just jumps off the page.
For God to speak to His people through this prophet
and say, Consider your ways. That's a hard stop.
You know, the Lord's saying, pay attention. You
know, let's get it together. You've been over
here and I need you, you know, right here. They
had put their own interests before the interests
of God. And that was a very dangerous ground.
And the Lord was calling them to task here. They
were reaping the results. of what they had done.
They were running faster and faster, but they
weren't getting ahead. They weren't actually
getting anywhere. And that sounds like the lives
that so many are living right now. Racing through
life at a breakneck pace, yet never quite catching
the elusiveness that always seems like it's out
ahead. Here in America and in the Western world,
we go harder than we've ever went before. Our
flesh reaches and yearns, but cannot be Fully
satisfied. But you know, not only did God challenge
them to consider their ways, he also gave them
the solution. He said, stop what you've been
doing. You went up into the hill country to get
timber to build your own houses. You went up
in the hill country to get the resources that
you needed to panel your house. He said, go again.
Get the wood. Rebuild my temple so that I might
be... Isn't that wonderful that God doesn't just
rebuke them, but He does rebuke them because
they needed it. Praise God when we step out,
when we have sinned, God has indwelled us believers
with His Holy Spirit, and He convicts us. Praise
God for that, because we need that conviction.
And it shouldn't just drive us to pursue our
own ambitions, but to repent once we've been
convicted of our sin. But not only does God convict
them and rebuke them, He gives them the solution.
Isn't that amazing? He said, stop this, do this.
Look at verses 9, 10, 11, and 12. Haggai says,
You have looked for much, but indeed it came
to little, and when you brought it home it blew
away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because my
house it is in ruins, while every one of you
runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens
above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds
its fruit. For I called for a drought on the
land, and on the mountains, and on the grain.
and on the new wine and the oil, on whatever
the ground brings forth, on men and livestock,
and on all the labor of your hands. So this returning
remnant had mixed up their priorities, and as
a result, they had not experienced a hand of
blessing from God. The Lord had not blessed the
effort that they had put forth. The Lord asked
them to abandon their excuses. It wasn't a good
time. It wasn't a good time. Not now. Oh, we're
being oppressed. Oh, we don't have enough time.
We don't have enough money. They produced so
many excuses as to why they could not begin rebuilding
the temple. And the thing about excuses is they
can sideline us. We can make up an excuse for
almost anything to sort of spin out in our own
minds why we can't do this, why we can't fulfill
that obligation, why we can't go there. And we
can tell ourselves a lot of things. But the Lord
tells them, you've already done this for yourself.
Now do it for me. Make my house your priority,
not your house your priority. He's saying that
they should turn and labor and take a place that
is lying in desolate ruin and turn it into a
place that God might delight and that he might
be glorified. And until their priorities were
reordered, until God's house was restored, they
could not expect. any of the Lord's blessing
to produce fruit in their lives, their lands,
their families, all of these ways that they felt
they had just not been getting out of life, what
they had been putting in. Look at an immediate
response here in verse 12. Then Zerubbabel, the
son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadek,
the high priest, with all the remnant of the
people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God
and the words of Haggai the prophet. And as the
Lord their God had sent him, and the people feared
the presence of the Lord. So what is that verse
saying? First of all, they heard the words of
the prophet. They were rebuked. They obeyed the
voice of the Lord their God, the words that came
through Haggai. And they all feared the presence
of the Lord. So from the highest governor all
the way down to the lowest citizen, the entire
remnant. It didn't say a pocket. It didn't say
half. It said all of them. All of this remnant
obeyed God's word, not just some, but they all
heard it, and then they all obeyed it. I mean,
that's a whole other step there. Haggai's preaching
had an immediate and powerful effect on the hearts
of the people. They are sorrowful, they are then
convicted, and then they become repentant. Why?
Because they understood God's justice that had
been poured out on them. The Word of God should
have the same effect on us. As we sit under faithful
preaching, as we hear God's Word opened and it
is exposited, we should then, through that Word,
consider our ways as we hear the Word of God
preached. There should be areas in our lives
that do not line up. With God's standard that
should come out when we read God's word, when
we hear it preached. Ian Duguid said this in
his commentary. He said, which of us could truly
say that we have always sought first God's kingdom?
And who could say that he has always pursued
his righteousness with our whole heart? None
of us could say that. Even on our best days,
the best 15 minutes of our life, we're not there.
We are all guilty at points in our lives, in
various seasons of our lives, of building our
own houses while neglecting the Lord's. And when
we are convicted of that, that is not the time
to shrug it off and say, well, I'm doing the
best I can. It's not the time to shrug it off
and say, I'm just going to keep going my way.
It is a time, just like the people of Judah here,
to be sorrowful and repentant and pour ourselves
out in front of a holy God and say, God, This
started out as a hobby to me. This started out
as something that was fun to me, and now it's
got out of hand. My priorities are mixed up.
I'm now pouring way too much into this. It was
a good thing, but my heart's became an idol factory.
It's all I can do. It's all I can think about.
And we get mixed up like that. No one sets out
to go do things all the time that take them away
from God's house. It happens little by little.
But if they're God's children, the world will
convict them. It will convict us. Praise God
for that. But when we are convicted, we should
be sorrowful, absolutely, but repentant. And
go to the Lord in that way. Verse 13. This is
beautiful. Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger,
spoke the Lord's message to the people saying,
I am with you, says the Lord. So at the conclusion
of verse 12, we don't want to lose this. It said
that the people feared the Lord. Now that's a
good response because God is pure and God is
holy and there is a healthy, reverent fear of
the Lord. However, In their fear of him, they
corrected their vision of the Lord as well. And
Haggai announces comforting news to them as the
Lord says, I am with you. As the people have
become sorrowful and repentant and they are turning
back to God, what do they hear from the prophet?
It's beautiful that the Lord had already turned
towards them. That as they were repentant, God
turns towards them is also that in spite of their
sin, when they repented, there was restoration.
This is good news for us as well, church. The
Lord is not a harsh taskmaster, is what His Word
tells us. He is not a God that just sits upon
His throne, looking down on us, waiting for us
to slip up in some way or step out of line in
some way so He can punish us severely. God does
not do that. But God does confront our sin. And
He confronts our sin so He can forgive us and
show us grace and mercy when we are repentant.
Praise God that he is not a harsh taskmaster,
as his word would say. Verses 14 and 15, we see
here action, not just words. It's one thing,
you know, sometimes we are sorrowful over our
sin. There are several times we are repentant
over our sin, but it can stop at the words. And
we don't really follow through with action. Verse
14 and 15, so the Lord stirred up, this was not
an accident, the Lord stirred up the spirit of
Zerubbabel. the son of Shealtiel, governor of
Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak,
the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant
of the people. And they came and they worked
on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God,
didn't say a God, their God, on the 24th day
of the sixth month in the second year of King
Darius. Now, we see the sovereignty of God on
full display here. It was the Lord, L -O -R -D.
Yahweh, the spirit of Yahweh who stirred up these
powerful men, one over civil matters, one over
religious matters, to begin this restoration
work on the temple. After their repentance, after
their restoration, it was the Lord who stirs
the spirits of the people. And they come and
they begin preparation. They go up in the hill
country. They get the timber. They get the materials.
They do all those laborious tasks. They bring
all these things down. And when they hear the
word of God, It pricked at their hearts. That
should be the response of each and every believer
who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Word of
God is used for rebuke and for encouragement.
It is used to convict us of our sin, but also
to encourage us and give us joy. We should never
just be consumers of godly content. When the
Word is preached, there should be a response.
Certainly, as we hear God's Word preached, as
we read it on a daily basis and take in Christian
content, we should sorrow over our sin. Our sin
is grievous to God. It is heinous in His sight.
And it should break us at times. Because as much
as we try not to, we are going to sin because
we are in this body of... flesh. We're in this
natural man. MacArthur said it best. It was our
unredeemed humanness, and we will be in it till
the day we leave this world and are united with
the Lord and experience ultimate glorification.
While we are here, our sin should grieve us.
Some of the greatest preachers, commentators
that were in the Reformation and from then until
now were broken constantly over their sin. The
prayers of the Puritans, many were broken over
their sin. They understood how just grievous
it was and the separation between them and God,
and yet it drove them to repentance. It should
do the same for us. But what about these men?
Did they just go and begin to rebuild because
it seemed like the right thing to do? No. They
were broken over their sin. They were repentant.
It's not sheer willpower, but it said the Lord
stirred up this spirit within them that God had
moved their hearts in this way. When we obey
the Lord, it is because He has given us the desire
and the strength to do so. It's not because we
got up and thought it would be a good idea. It
is God who is sovereign over the sanctification
of his people. And we see that here. You say,
okay, this is really good. What about us? We
are not much different than Haggai's original
audience because we too, at times, have been
distracted by building our own houses and not
being focused on building the Lord's house. Our
world moves so fast. And it comes with its own
unique set of challenges. It is increasingly
harder for parents raising children to keep them
involved in doing kid things and still making
church their ultimate priority. It is harder
now than it was in generations past to work a
good job that doesn't require a lot of travel.
It doesn't require you to be away in the midweek
and on the weekends. And things move very...
Quickly, in our flesh, we have a propensity to
chase. You say, chase what? We want to chase
success. We chase wealth. But what is the problem?
Those are unfulfilling masters. They sound good
at the time, but they will always be elusive.
It will never be enough. It's an unfulfilling
master. What's the ultimate frustration of the
hamster? He never reaches the top of the wheel.
It just goes and goes and goes. Whatever satisfaction
we do feel from anything like that is temporary
and fleeting. What we will find is the paneled
houses will never be enough. The pleasures are
elusive. Paul said in the New Testament that
all we have gained will eventually be rust, rot,
burned, or forgotten. Jesus said in Mark 8 36,
what does it profit a man to gain the whole world
if at the same time he loses his Soul. Our priorities
matter. And they don't just matter in eternity.
They matter right now. They matter no matter
if we're 80. or raising young children. It does
not matter. Our priorities matter now. And as
believers, our priorities, we are called out
that they must align with Scripture. We cannot
say and be justified in, well, in this season
of my life, I'm going to do this, and I'm going
to do this, and I'm going to go out of town to
work, and I'm going to make this money, and then
I'm going to do this, and then I've got time
to rebuild the Lord's house. Then I've got time
to teach Sunday school and invest here. That's
not what God's Word said. Our priorities matter
now, not for later. Even though Haggai finds
these returned exiled Jews focusing on their
own homes, their own lives, their own priorities,
their own ambitions, he offers them another avenue.
And the Lord does the same for me and you. We
have that avenue to repent, to humble ourselves
before God, to pour out our energy into building
God's house, as serving is the only true way
of blessing. Jesus said again, In Mark, he said,
but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be added unto you.
Now this is the type of thing that can and will
lead to lasting fulfillment of our souls. God
can bless his people in ways we never dreamed
of. Every one of us probably has a story that
at some time in our life, things were not looking
so good. There was an expense, there was a bill,
there was something going on. And the Lord provided
the means for that in a way that just seems almost
extraordinary. But to put God first, to seek
his righteousness, to build into his kingdom,
the Lord cares for his children. We're not lost
on him. Not only is he not a harsh taskmaster,
the Lord loves his children. He meets their needs
no matter how large or how small they are. If
we ate food today, praise God for that. He gave
us enough to eat. So what about building God's
house in our day? We can be rest assured that
it will not be by our zeal alone. It will be
by the zeal of Christ that we will build into
the Lord's house. Just as it was the Lord's spirit
that stirred up Zerubbabel and Joshua, we do
not come and do any work here of ourself. It
is Christ who will give us zeal to do that. Christ
has already shown great zeal for his people.
As much as Jesus cleansed the temple and He drove
out the money changers, remember, He took the
whip and did so. God would turn the whip on His
very own Son as He took the punishment that our
sins deserved as He was on the cross. Our lack
of zeal was paid for on the cross. The gospel
message of our sins was paid for by Jesus Christ,
and His righteousness was imputed to us as it
were our own, and that is the foundation on which
God builds His church. God is the one who is
building. His new temple, the church, by the
means of His Holy Spirit. You say, how? Paul
wrote about it in Ephesians chapter 2. Having
been built on the foundation of the apostles
and the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being
the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building,
being fitted together, grows into a holy temple
in the Lord. And here you are, in whom you also
are being built together for a dwelling place
of God in the Spirit. Now, what this doesn't
mean, it doesn't mean that we watch from the
sidelines. Of course not. God's work is the foundation
and encouragement for our work. It was because
God roused the spirits of Haggai's hearers that
they began to work with enthusiasm. And it is
because God is at work in our earthly bodies
by this Spirit, His Holy Spirit, that we are
called, motivated, and empowered to glorify God
with... the bodies that he has given us. It is
because God is committed to establishing his
kingdom in and through us that we are called
to seek his kingdom first above all other things,
above all other priorities, above all other things
we could chase. We should be a people stirred
by a holy zeal to love and build God's church.
Think back to Haggai's heirs. They planted, but
they didn't harvest much. They had clothes, but
not enough to stay warm. What about the church?
What promises has God made to us? God promised
his children real food. And in Christ, he gave
us the bread of life. In Christ, he gave us a
fountain of living water. We are clothed in Christ's
righteousness. And as opposed to those returning
exiles, these things provide lasting satisfaction
for our souls. Ain't do good again. Yet we do
not receive the fullness of this promised blessing
here and now. There is a feast that is yet to
come, a feast that will fully satisfy our soul
with the richest affair. Church, it's the last
thing. New Jerusalem awaits us. There are promises
that God has made to his people. And in the present,
right now, life is hard and it can be frustrating.
And it was no less hard or frustrating to these
returning exiles that we will read about here
in Haggai. We find ourselves struggling to be
faithful in the midst of challenging life circumstances.
But each week as we come to the Lord's table,
we are reminded that we experience tokens of
the promise that God has gave to his people.
In just a morsel of bread and just a very small
amount of juice in the cup, it is a constant
reminder and it arouses our hunger. It should
at least every week. to hunger for a day that
from God we will be fully satisfied. When the
construction of his new city will be complete
and the Lord Jesus Christ will be united with
his people forever. Amen. It's a good word. Interesting
book that we'll get into a little deeper week
by week, but the prophet Haggai, if you want
to read ahead, feel free. It's not a long book.
Very interesting read. Haggai gives four different
sermons to the people. And the first is a rebuke.
But it's beautiful how they respond and are broken
and then repentant over their sin. And certainly
so much we can take out of that ourselves. All
right. We will go ahead and dismiss from this
part of the service. If you would stay, if you're
a member of the church, we would ask that you
stay. We'll have a short monthly business meeting.
So if you're able to stand. we would invite you
to do so. We'll have a benediction prayer, and
we would ask our members stay for the business
meeting. Brother Mike Thompson, do you care to
have the benediction prayer?